The Tree of Life.

  In February me and my housemates began to start to have movie nights, this week we watched The Tree of Life a film directed by Terrence Malick; The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

  When watching the film first time its very confusing and the plot is made up of many visual and sound clips, i.e. volcanoes exploding, the universe, dinosaurs and vast surroundings. One of the scenes used is a sequence of the universe and the feeling evoked from watching such scenes is a feeling of insignificance of the young boy in the film and gradually how his childhood naivety becomes disillusioned; surrounded by overwhelming scenes throughout the film it helps you understand his emotions without having to be narrated through his life experience (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4). Its a really clever film and the way you look at each segment is a form of re-igniting all these long lost first moments/feelings/discoveries/guilt's of your childhood and every experience is very personal as apposed to being told how you felt about a film, its more your film.

  One particular part that really made me think is a clip of dinosaurs: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDum3gehFg0&feature=related) played into the film and for the life of me I couldn't understand why but after researching this further I was enlightened to the fact that the clip was used to show; the dinosaur’s urge to commit violence is animalistic, but is it also the same bestial urge which influences Jack to commit acts of vandalism, to break in a house and most disturbingly, to tell his brother to place his hand in front of a BB gun and then pull the trigger. This type of exploration really helps to understand Jack's life and the film itself so you feel involved.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0 - Tree of Life Trailer

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4 - Universe Clip

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDum3gehFg0&feature=related - Dinosaur Clip